The Cinque Terre – Part II (Thursday 8th August 2013)

Today's plan was to catch the boat that connects four of the five villages by sea. The shore-line at the bottom of Corniglia presents to much difficulty for large boats to be able to dock, so it is bypassed. I use the term “dock” euphemistically, as none of the villages have anything that remotely looks like a dock. In all cases except Monterosso the boat is parked nose first against a rocky outcrop with a path that leads to the village. In the case of Monterosso the boat is parked nose first into a man made breakwater. Passengers board by a gang-plank that is pushed out from the nose of the boat to the land. It is quiet a hairy experience getting off and on via this rolling and heaving platform. Heaven knows what it would be like on a day when the sea is not calm as it was today.

We rode from Monterosso to the furthest village of Riomaggiore, about a 30 minute journey including stops. It was wearing my “Mainframes Rule” tee-shirt which attracted a comment from an American woman, “Mainframes sure do rule”. Immediately we were the best of friends! She is a Sysprog with 30+ years experience at a bank in Seattle. She and her friends were taking a short break from Turin where their over 55's soccer team has made the Semi-finals. I couldn't resist saying to her that if she was firmly of the opinion that “Mainframes Rule” I had figured that she must be over 50, at least!

Riomaggiore has a tiny harbour behind a break-water. At first glance it looks very small. We sat and had a cool drink while we watched men build a new boat holding “rack”. How many Italian men does it take to built a boat rack. If you look at the photo the answer, apparently, is eleven. A young lad came along shortly afterwards, the apprentice one presumes, to make it an even dozen!

Up a dark tunnel we proceeded and popped out in the main street of the town which was wide and bright. Did I mention it was steep? Off the right and left steep steps climbed up to, around and behind the houses and shops. We wandered around for an hour or so searching for a little gem down an alley or at the top of a set of steps. It was hard going. We eventually found ourselves near the top of the village.

We followed a path past the municipal offices which swung around the back on a downward trajectory. This opened up a whole other part of the village we didn't even know was there. At the bottom was a largish piazza adjacent to the station and the beginning of walk from Riomaggiore to Manarola. This part of the walk is closed as it has nit yet been repaired since the floods of October 2011 and the landslides of September 2012. Four Victorian women made international news when one of the landslides came crushing down on them while walking this part of the track. All survived but with serious injuries, as one might expect.

A tunnel leading from the far end of the piazza piqued our interest so we headed for that to see where it went. Well, it led us right back to where we started in the other part of town when we first arrived. This was very good news as it meant we didn't have to climb back up to the top of the village. We found another vendor of Italian style “fish and chips” and this time Kerry tucked in too. Good, but not as good as the one in Vernazza. We then searched for the obligatory fridge magnet (I'll need a bigger fridge after this trip!) and then dropped down the the shore-line to wait for the boat to Manarola.

The five minute journey took..... five minutes. This village is not so impressive from the water either. It certainly has the most precarious landing point. All of the skill of the captain is on show here as, using his diesel engines, works to find the balance between keeping the boat steady and close enough to the rocks to allow disembarkation and then boarding without letting the waves push him into them.

One enters the village through a narrow natural cutting in the rocks and, you guessed it, a set of steps. Along the way beneath the Marina Piazza is a beautiful little pool surrounded by high rocks, with a fresh water spring running in.

Some people were swimming and jumping from the rocks into the crystal-clear water. We had a drink at a cafe directly above and despite the relatively cool weather and a sky that was trying to rain, we decided to join them. The water was magic. As clear as it looked from above, probably 3 metres deep throughout and clear of any obstacles which allowed for safe diving and jumping.

We stayed in for 20 minutes and enjoyed the water and the view watching the many people gathered around the edge of the Marina Piazza way above, watching us. I circumnavigated a very large rock on the sea-ward edge of the pool. The water, through my ungoggled eyes, was as blue as blue, just like the waters of the Mediterranean are always depicted.

After the swim we dried off and headed over to find the start of the trail from Manarola to Corniglia expecting to find a locked gate as we had been advised this section was closed due to the 2012 landslides. Well we just kept walking along the track ,which seemed in parts as if it were suspended above the waters of the Mediterranean. As we approached the site of the first of three landslides we expected to find a locked gate which would see us return to Manarola to catch the ferry back to Monterosso. Instead, we found a very new and shiney suspension bridge across the fallen land. Then we found another and then another.

Before we knew it we were in Corniglia. What an unexpected surprise! I think the track is not officially open but the usually locked gate at the Manarola end was open and the still locked gate at the Corniglia end had been “adjusted” by some enterprising individuals which allowed us to squeeze through without much trouble.

We caught the train back to Monterosso, walked from the station directly to our local watering hole, where “our” waitress bought out “the usual” without us asking when she saw us arrive . We sat back to watch the waves coming into the beach below. 

After dark I ventured out to get a shot of the villages at night, as best I could.